WIWO: my idea

This week I am working on an IDEA—not the lightbulb kind, rather a submission for the International Dialects of English Archive (IDEA).

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IDEA is an online catalogue of English dialects and accents from around the world. Created in 1997, the site is fully searchable by country, state and province as well as speaker characteristics such as ethnicity, age and occupation.

It is a great resource for dialect research—and it’s free! I use it for accent research and practice. It’s also a valuable tool for producers, directors and actors.

Not all corners of the globe have a representative sample—hence what I am working on! I’m currently recording an Australian sample for review and publishing.

If you are interested in participating, you just need a voice and a recording device and the guidelines will take you through the rest.